The world’s top 33 water thrill rides

After careful consideration and in reflection of the current offerings in the world, I’m going to award Universal’s trio of Jurassic themed River Adventure rides as the best of the best.

While all three attractions started out as Jurassic Park-themed rides, the Hollywood original was updated with a Jurassic World theme, and now features some of the actors from the films. At the heart, all three attractions feature what is essentially the same ride system and a layout that takes guest into a world where dinosaurs have been brought back to life.

Of course “Nature finds a way” and the dinosaurs always seem to get loose, and go on a rampage. Regardless of which version you are riding, the experience ends with an extremely close encounter with a lot of teeth and a mind-blowing 85 foot drop that somehow feels like you are plunging straight down the center of the Earth.

Disney’s Splash Mountain is widely considered as one of the best water rides ever built.

The dark ride experience features both indoor and outdoor segments, a huge collection of thrills, extensive use of animatronics and a catchy Disney theme song. The interesting thing is that right now the Tokyo Disneyland version of the ride is the only Splash Mountain left in the world, as the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions have both been closed down for good.

Both of the American flume rides are expected to return in late 2024 after being transformed into an all new attraction themed to Disney’s Princess and the Frog animated film.

I’m going to say it… while it opened in 1999, this is still hands down the single best river rapids ride in the world. Universal Creative worked with Barr Engineering to create a next-level rapids ride, able to do things that no other ride could do. According to Barr Engineering, Universal tasked them to create “the world’s biggest, fastest whitewater raft ride”  that would call for “abrupt changes in water velocity, surprise river turns, large rapids, and steep water drops” all while maintaining the utmost in care for safety.

Theming wise, the attraction literally puts you in the cartoon world of Popeye, featuring a landscape of colorful props that fit right in with the raging whitewater around you. The final result is a ride that is both scary at times while still giving you a belly full of laughs along the way at the complete outrageous action taking place all around you.

Impossible looking drops turn into a wild churning river, full of unpredictable action, and zany water effects so over the top that you can only laugh when you get blasted in the face. Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges is a ride like no other on Earth.

Phantasialand worked with Intamin to create what may be the ultimate flume ride – one that pulls out all the stops and uses every trick in the book.

This flume ride features a custom musical score, forward and backwards flume sections, several plunges, animated effects scenes, and a breathtaking finale plunge that has to be seen to be believed. The ride drops down below grade and blasts up and over a massive airtime hill before the final splashdown.

Disney opened the first Pirates of the Caribbean dark flume ride in 1967. This was followed by another in Florida in 1973, then Tokyo in 1983 and then Paris in 1992. When it came time to open the brand new Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, Disney knew it wanted to update the concept of what a Pirates ride would be, and theme this latest version extensively to the Pirates of the Caribbean films, released between 2003 to 2017.

This meant the creation of a new flume ride system for the 21st century, one that was able to rotate the boats when needed throughout the course to to keep the riders focused on the action. The attraction uses a collection of extensive set pieces, animatronic figures, projection scenes and cutting edge special effects, leading up to a unique backwards plunge finale.

The final result is an amazing and utterly unique attraction in the world that brings the film universe to life.

Every Disney theme park fan has their own favorite version. However, I had no choice but to group all four of Disney’s classic Pirates of the Caribbean rides in a four way tie, simply because they are all so similar to each other and essentially tell the exact same story.

When it comes to theming, there is no doubt that these really are some of the best water rides in the world. The only area in which they are lacking would be in the thrill category, but otherwise Disney’s Pirates rides are works of art, plain and simple.

In 2020 Silver Dollar City opened a custom themed river rapids attraction, created by Herschend Family Entertainment, Barr Engineering and a ride system from Ride Engineers Switzerland (RES).

Along with some extensively themed river sections, the attraction also features a unique elevator style lift to the top at the end, for which it now holds the world record for the highest drop on a river rapids ride at 45 feet, surpassing 2018’s Infinity Falls.

Unlike the former attraction that features a single drop, Mystic River Falls uses a unique vertical lift system that rotates the rafts 180º while lifting them 82 feet into the air. From here, they are deposited into a 270º spiral helix drop before transitioning into the 45 foot traditional-style final drop to the splashdown below.

The custom made dark flume ride, Piraten in Batavia has an extensive history with Europa-Park. The original attraction, which opened in 1987, was built as an homage to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean dark ride. Much like the Disney attraction, it featured a family friendly sized flume ride that starts off with a small drop into a fantasy world of pirate adventures.

In 2018 disaster struck Europa-Park and the original Piraten in Batavia attraction was caught up in a fire that destroyed the entire Scandinavia themed land nearby as well as burning the themed attraction to the ground. Thankfully the Mack family vowed to rebuild the attraction, bigger and better than ever, and proceeded to open the all new and modern version of Pirates in Batavia in the summer of 2020.

The updated version of the ride features an all new storyline, a custom soundtrack, an army of modern animatronics, and cutting edge special effects.

Phantasialand worked with Hafema to open a river rapids ride like no other in 2002. Rather than your typical nature-inspired theming, River Quest features black bat themed rafts that travel along a river running through a dark castle fortress.

The ride uses an elevator lift to move the rafts to the top of the 72 foot castle structure and starts off the fun with a large drop. The course then speeds up, showing off a unique looking whirlpool drop that throws the rafts immediately down a double-drop, and then down a large third plunge into the dark lower level of the castle before returning to the station.

When it was built, River Quest held the record for the biggest drop on a rapids ride at 36 feet. It held this record for 16 years until it was finally surpassed by Infinity Falls in 2018.

This unique Mack Rides log flume was created as an opening day attraction for Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park, which opened in 1999.

In contrast to just about every other log ride I’ve ever seen, Ripsaw Falls was dedicated to bringing the classic Jay Ward cartoon universe to life in three dimensions. The awesome cartoon theming really works in most places, but it can be inconsistent and even missing entirely in some areas.

The flume features a fantastic mix of ride elements, starting with a mini drop, a fun coaster style drop in complete darkness, followed by the big drop at the end which features the most intense speed hill I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the ride’s ranking as one of the best water thrill rides in the world was harmed by the addition of an excessive lap-bar restraint system in 2007. This makes it hard to get into the logs, and sometimes nearly impossible to climb back out once the riders are soaked.

While Mack Rides built the first ever water coaster for SeaWorld, it followed this up by building its very own version at Europa-Park in 2000. Taking everything Mack Rides learned from building the prototype, the German version opted in for outdoor theming instead of an indoor dark ride segment, along with a much more extensive roller coaster track section after the first lift hill.

This was followed by a splashdown drop, similar to the end of Journey To Atlantis, only for the boats to turn around and climb a second large lift hill and drive down a straight roller coaster style plunge below the ground before blasting up a speedy airtime hill that rips riders back down into the splashdown finale.

The end result is one of the finest flume rides of all time.

SeaWorld Orlando surprised the world when it opened Journey To Atlantis in 1998. The Mack Rides water coaster served as the first major thrill ride to be built inside SeaWorld, which was formerly focused almost entirely upon being only a marine life theme park.

The attraction starts off with an extensive dark ride segment, passing through the interior of a massive Atlantis themed temple structure. The original storyline of the attraction featured a Greek fisherman, the magical seahorse Hermes character that serves to guide your journey, and protect you from the evil siren, Allura.

When JTA first opened, it was widely considered as one of the most soaking water rides ever created. This wasn’t just from the typical splashing from flume drops that you might expect, but it also featured an extensive series of other water effects (water falls, cannons, errant bouncing streams of water and more) that would soak every rider beyond their wildest imagination. We can only imagine that the park took pity on guests as most of these were shut down after the first season.

Journey to Atlantis also had unusual pacing, featuring a dramatic one-two punch finale. In an unusual twist, the big flume drop seen out front was actually experienced first, only for the boats to turn around and head back inside the structure for a surprising final twisting roller coaster plunge in darkness. Regarded as one of the most thrilling water rides of all time, unfortunately the dark ride segments have fallen into enough disrepair that the former storyline is now incomprehensible, but the thrills still remain.

Standing out as a unique attraction not seen at any other of Disney’s Magic Kingdom themed parks, Walt Disney Imagineers decided to build Roaring Rapids, a river rapids ride built onto a fake mountain, as an opening date attraction for the Shanghai park in 2016.

Located in the park’s Adventure Isle area, it serves as a modern incarnation of the classic Adventureland area. Guests board rafts and travel through a lush landscape before climbing a large lift hill to the top of the Apu Taku mountain, also known as Roaring Mountain.

The caverns within the legendary mountain are rumored to be home to the Q’araq, a gigantic crocodile looking beast responsible for loud roaring noises that echo through the area. Once at the top of the river, a fallen tree re-routes the river along a new and dangerous path, down falls into a dark cavern for a harrowing encounter with the Q’araq. Racing away to find safety the riders quickly find themselves perched atop a massive waterfall with no where to go but down.

SeaWorld Orlando opened this modern take on the river rapids adventure in the later half of 2018, securing the record for the tallest drop on a river rapids ride at the time, at 40 feet.

The colorful rapids ride feature a layout full of tropical scenery, high speed currents, rapids, a lift hill in the middle provides a brief pause before moving on to the second half of the adventure which culminates by lifting the rafts up to the top of a final drop tower through with an open-air elevator style lift system.

Widely considered as one of the greatest log rides of all time, the Knott’s Berry Farm original first opened back in 1969, featuring a log flume system from Arrow Dynamics.

The mountain themed adventure ride has evolved and had various theming upgrades performed over the years, including a major overall in 2013 that saw a large number of scenic upgrades as well as the installation of a a number of new animatronics from Garner Holt Productions. More upgrades were added in 2019 as part of the ride’s 50th Anniversary celebration.

While it may not be the biggest or steepest log flume, the Knott’s ride is probably one of the most well known log flumes in the world, and was even used as design inspiration by Walt Disney Imagineers in the late 1980s when they began to create their own designs for Splash Mountain at Disneyland.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg had a vision to build an attraction the likes of which had never been seen before for the park’s 1995 season. The idea was to take a typical Intamin-made Shoot the Chutes big splash boat ride, but to create a large show-building that the boats would travel through at the top of the lift hill before taking the plunge back outside.

Built as part of the Italy themed section of the park, they opted to put guests in the middle of an epic disaster experience as part of Escape from Pompeii. To this end, a 19,000 sqft show building was created to showcase various disaster elements such various breaking wooden support beats, collapsing stone pillars, water eruptions and an extensive display of real fire effects!

The fire effects system was so massive that it also required the installation of a custom air circulation system able to recycle all the air inside the show building every 30 seconds in order to keep it from getting too hot.

Taking what lessons they learned from their first rapids ride in Florida, Walt Disney Imagineering and Intamin worked together to create the massive themed Grizzly River Run (GRR for short) as a 2001 opening day attraction and visual icon for the Disney California Adventure theme park.

Over the years, the overall theme of the ride has been updated. While it started off with more of an extreme sports-style rapids theme, it has evolved to feature more of a classic National Parks theme. The attraction features a very large lift that travels to the top of a fake mountain structure shaped like a giant bear head, then goes on a wild ride across the mountain peaks, through a tunnel and eventually down a large hill that gives the rafts a good spin as they fall.

This unique nearly fully enclosed flume ride from Intamin features a fun viking theme and a number of interesting themed elements along the journey. Opening in 2000, it has also come to be known as possibly one of the wettest rides in the world, where the park actually sells rain ponchos to guests to wear while they wait in the queue.

Valhalla made the headlines when it was announced that the attraction would remain closed for the entire 2020 season for an extensive refurbishment that would see it open the following year. Delayed by the COVID pandemic and various supply chain issues, the reopening date was pushed back again, until it finally held a grand reopening in May 2023.

While a large steel ride would not seem out of place in the SeaWorld San Diego park of today, this 2004 creation from Mack Rides would actually be the park’s first blatant thrill ride.

Up until this time, the park’s masterplan and land lease with the city did not permit typical amusement park-style rides to be built, so instead they had to incorporate only more theatrical-style modern attractions such as 4D Theaters and Simulators.

While this was not the first “Journey To Atlantis” branded flume for the SeaWorld chain of parks, the San Diego version eliminated the more costly dark ride elements from the Orlando original in favor of added more open-air roller coaster track segments, and opted to hide an unusual elevator lift system inside the ride’s central tower to raise the boats up for the final drop sequence.

The ride features fun and thrilling elements that guests enjoy, unfortunately any mystery felt while going up in the dark elevator sequence is somewhat spoiled when the view at the top is only of the parking lot.

While Europa-Park is owned by the same family that owns Mack Rides, it went to Intamin to create the park’s unique river rapids ride that opened in 1991.

While it is an older-style rapids adventure, it features a fairly long flume that passes through a number of different scenes, including a Troll village and a dark tunnel, and passes through the park’s Scandinavia-themed land. In addition to traditional rapids, Fjord Rafting also uses wave generators in select areas. This really changes the dynamic of the thrills by adding lateral moving waves to the rushing waters.

All combined, the attraction features a highly satisfying combination of thrills that the park’s guests all seem to enjoy.

Named after the legendary ghost ship, this 2007 flume ride creation at Efteling is part dark ride, part coaster and park flume ride.

Guests begin the adventure by passing through an extensively themed queue before entering large 14-passenger boats that journey off into a dark realm where the only source of light is a small lantern affixed to the front of the boat itself. Things take a very dark turn from here before the boats are thrust back into the open air via a section of roller coaster track, ending with a splashdown finale.

This unique creation is a one-of-a-kind attraction created by Efteling and KumbaK.

This SuperSplash flume was created by Mack Rides for the park in 2005 as a showcase of its updated concept of the traditional Shoot the Chutes flume concept. The attraction features a beautiful splashdown lagoon and a queue that winds through an old sea fortress structure that also serves as the ride station.

The 16-passenger boats are beautifully themed and carry guests 30 meters into the sky where a turntable sends the boat backwards down a small coaster-style drop and hill, before entering a second turntable that rotates them forward again for a final 30-meter plunge that passes below the water level briefly only to fly over an airtime speed hill before creating a huge splash in the lagoon.

If you don’t mind getting wet, this is one of the best thrills around.

When Universal teamed up with Resorts World Sentosa to open the new Universal Studios theme park in 2010, one of the opening day attractions was the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure.

The smaller-scale park wanted to bring the cinematic world of the Jurassic Park film to life in a new way and opted to create a Jurassic-themed river rapids adventure ride instead with the team at Hafema. The attraction features unique scenery, a number of dinosaur animatronics and water effects, such as a flash flood that pushes the rafts into a hydroelectric plant in an effort to escape from the dinosaurs on the loose.

For the finale, the rafts are loaded onto a vertical elevator-style lift for an encounter with the T-Rex, before escaping down a 40-foot plunge back to safety.

While the current Calico River Rapids version of the attraction opened in 2019, the attraction was actually first opened back in 1987 by Knott’s and Intamin as Bigfoot Rapids.

The old version of the attraction features some basic landscaping and a fun rapids ride experience but was often criticized by guests as failing to produce any actual Bigfoot theming, despite the ride’s name. Back in the day, the most anyone ever got was a loud roar when the rafts passed through a short dark tunnel at the end.

In 2019, the attraction underwent significant remodeling to add more impressive nature scenery along with the installation of nearly two dozen animatronic figures from Garner Holt Productions along the river. Spoiler alert… one of these figures is actually Bigfoot at last.

This Mack Rides creation for Chimelong Ocean Kingdom opened in 2014 and features some great scenic visuals, especially in the first segment of the ride as guests float past some large animal exhibit areas featuring a number of live polar bears.

The only real downside to the attraction is that after the boats climb to the top of the first lift through an ice cave to begin a segment of roller coaster-style track, all theming is dropped and this section of the ride is exposed to the surrounding landscape before turning back into the themed mountain structure. A similar break in the theming is also present at the top of the second lift before the riders dive down an impressive drop, followed by an excellent speed hill before splashing down in the cold water once again.

This flume ride at Dollywood, a creation of Hopkins Rides, opened back in 1998 and features a slow river adventure through various scenery and tunnels.

There isn’t much that appears too cutting edge here, however, the ride features an amazingly themed final drop down the mountain, with small waterfalls plunging down either side of the main flume, combined with an incredibly well-timed splash sequence effect at the bottom. The overall effect of the final plunge is both breathtaking to experience, as well as to watch from the safety of dry land for those wanting to stay dry.

Opening in 2018, this dark flume ride at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is the creation of Thinkwell Group and Intamin. It takes guests on a fun journey into the city of Bedrock, along with the Flintstones cast of characters.

It features beautifully designed scenery that brings the formerly two-dimensional cartoon world created by Hanna-Barbera to life in a three-dimensional world. It also features a fun projection room scene that masks a turntable effect at the top of the lift hill that serves as a great introduction into the world of the characters realized by real scenery, various figures, and the occasional projection effect, before sending the guests back via a family-friendly sized flume drop.

When this custom dark ride creation from Walt Disney Imagineering and Intamin first opened in 1988 it was called Maelstrom, taking guests on an adventure through scenes depicting Norway’s history and folklore.

Taking advantage of the smash-hit animated film, Frozen, Disney rethemed and reopened the ride as Frozen Ever After in 2016, keeping most of the original ride layout intact. The current version remains very popular at the park and features both forwards and backwards flume sections, animatronic figures, a musical score and a big splash finale.

The attraction has also inspired two new rides that are currently under construction at Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Paris.

This Intamin river rapids ride opened in 1999 and features a unique Shipwreck environment. As the rafts pass through the flume they encounter rapids and a few animal exhibits, and get splashed and dripped on by various creations built by other castaways who were shipwrecked here.

The attraction features a variety of beautiful themed settings, props, waterwalls, and ends by sucking the boats through a waterpark and into a dark cave, passing through the boiler room of a massive shipwreck before exiting through a hole in the hull and up the lift past two massive water screws that actually do serve as the ride’s main source of water instead of a traditional water pump system.

This entirely indoor flume ride that opened in 2019 is a unique hybrid creation from Interlink and Simworx that bends the concept of what a flume ride is capable of by adding an Immersive Tunnel.

The hybrid creation, marketed as an Immersive Flume, sends guests wearing 3D glasses through some great-looking scenery themed like a familiar Dinosaur theme park. Before long the boats enter a dark room and are invisibly loaded onto a motion base for a short simulator adventure before the front wall breaks away and sends the boat forward into the flume once again.

For the finale, the boats are loaded into an elevator-style vertical lift that releases them at the top of a large drop.

Opening in 2002 this Intamin-made flume ride features a unique layout with turntables to enable both forwards and backwards flowing sections. This is all hidden of course by a large fake mountain structure in front of the ride that riders will begin their journey by climbing a lift into the mountain, and end several minutes later by taking a large plunge down the falls in the front.

The first hidden plunge is notable for not only being a backwards drop but also features an airtime-filled speed hill before the boats splash down. Switching back to forward motion, guests will pass through a Native American village and through an old Western town before journeying back up into the mountain for the final plunge.

I’m ranking this in a tie with the nearly identical Wild West Falls Adventure Ride at Warner Bros. MovieWorld in Australia. Wild West Falls actually opened first in 1998 and while it features a nearly identical ride layout and theming, the hardware was actually provided by Hopkins Rides for this version.

Wild West Falls actually first opened under the name Wild Wild West, named for the upcoming film of the same name hitting theaters in 1999. However, the original intention of the park was to actually name the ride Rio Bravo, so when the Madrid park opened in 2002, it opted to use the Wild Wild West for a wooden roller coaster instead, allowing for the use of the original Rio Bravo name for the flume ride.

This Mack Rides flume has perhaps one of the most unique-looking vehicles ever designed as guests ride what appears to be a super-sizer porcelain-coated cast-iron bathtub, complete with a water spout and shower head sticking up out of the back.

The ride’s German name quite literally translates to “Bathtub Journey” or ‘Bathtub Trip”. If that wasn’t strange enough, your journey will take you inside a medieval-looking castle structure in search of the Fountain of Youth. Once you find the Fountain things get even weirder, as you come across a scene of youthful naked women bathing in the magical waters, while a collection of nearby fully clothed men look on.

This is a flume ride of course, which wouldn’t be complete without plunging guests down a couple of drops along the way, the first of which is a hidden backwards drop that you won’t even see coming.

This custom river rapids ride uses hardware from Intamin and was first opened way back in 1996 when the park reopened as Warner Bros. MovieWorld Germany. Unlike most river rapids rides, this one begins and ends inside a large show building, with the middle portion of the ride kept outside.

When the ride first opened it was themed to the film, The NeverEnding Story through to 2004. After the park was purchased by new owners and dropped the Warner Bros. theming, it transitioned into Mystery River from 2005 to 2017, before being transformed once again in 2018 into the current “Excalibur” medieval fantasy theme. The ride features some epic-sized set pieces, impressive large-scale scenes and a musical score.